Rise of the Huntress
by girlseekingserotonin
Summary: Sam and Dean stumble upon their half-sister Ashlynn right after her mother sacrifices her in a ritual. Her power could make her a great hunter-if the demons don't get to her first.
1. The Voice of God

Author's note: This is a Supernatural UA fic. The same universe, but with slight alterations. I have no update schedule that I follow. That would cause for bad writing.

* * *

Ashlynn had never known her father all too well. He had been in town on a business trip when he and Ashlynn's mother met. Her mother always told her the most wonderful stories about her dad. She said that he was a strong, caring man, albeit a bit strange. Ashlynn had inherited his thick, jet black hair but her mother's shapely nose and piercing green eyes. Ashlynn seemed to have also inherited her father's strangeness; while growing up, she would often have dreams about people with purely black eyes, no pupils at all. When she told her mother about the dreams, she laughed and told Ashlynn not to worry and that they were just dreams. But on Ashlynn's sixth birthday, life started to become more and more out of the ordinary.

Often, Ashlynn's mother would gaze into the distance, completely ignoring whatever task was at hand. Ashlynn had nearly been fatally injured on multiple occasions when her mother started to zone out behind the wheel of their mini-van. There was never too much danger involved; Ashlynn had lived her whole life in a small community in Washington, and there were never that many people on the roads. Sometimes Ashlynn's mother would come into her room at night and just watch her sleep. When Ashlynn was younger, this was a precaution taken to chase away the nightmares that riddled her mind night during the night. But something seemed different now. When her mother sat in the rocking chair opposite the bed, she didn't bring with her a sense of peace, but rather one of menace.

She was also suddenly far less religious than usual. Ashlynn had learned how to say her prayers every night as soon as she had learned how to talk. But now, her mother had taken down all the crucifixes in the house and forbidden her from even saying the Lord's name. Despite this fact, Ashlynn resisted by saying prayers in her head instead of out loud. Her mother was talking to herself often, having private discussions with important people, she claimed. Ashlynn felt like something wasn't quite right. Her mom had always told her that it was okay to have imaginary friends, so Ashlynn figured that her mom had some friends of her own.

Soon, though, things began to be even stranger. Her mother started calling her out of school, keeping Ashlynn in her room with the door closed for hours on end; only cracking it open to give her meals. Ashlynn sat and quietly played with her toys, but grew increasingly worried with each passing day. She heard her mother talking to herself more and more, an unusual amount for an imaginary friend. Didn't she know that you could talk to an imaginary friend inside your head, not always out loud? As all children know, it's much easier to converse with an imaginary friend inside one's head. It's irritating for other people in the room to only hear one end of the conversation, like being in the same room as someone making an angry phone call.

Two weeks after she had first called Ashlynn off from school, she heard her mother in the living room, laughing. It was erratic laughter; she was in hysterics. She opened Ashlynn's bedroom door and suddenly spoke in a serious tone.

"Come here, Ashlynn." Ashlynn froze for a moment, but then obeyed. This was the first time her mother had let her leave her room in weeks, aside from bathroom breaks. "We're going to play a game now." She said, grabbing Ashlynn's hand and leading her into the living room. There was a strange looking brass bowl and a jeweled knife with a sharp blade on the coffee table. There was a kitchen chair in the far corner of the room. "Go sit over there, sweetheart." Ashlynn's mother said, pointing to the kitchen chair. Ashlynn wondered if she was in a time-out.

"Am I in trouble?" She asked innocently. Her mother scowled and grabbed her by the wrist.

"I told you to sit in that chair, now do it!" She yelled. She dragged Ashlynn to the other side of the room. Ashlynn began to cry, but there was nothing she could do. Her mother was too strong. She forced Ashlynn into the chair and then tied her to it with a length of rope. Ashlynn squeaked in fear, but remained silent. Her mother crossed the room and inspected the bowls and jeweled blade on the coffee table, smiling to herself and humming."They told me it was a sickness, you know. They said that they're making me sick and inhumane… but I've never felt so alive before. Oh, I do look forward to this." She said soberly, running her index finger across the side of the blade.

"Mommy… are you okay? You said something about being sick." Ashlynn piped up, still hoping her mother would suddenly laugh and untie her, telling her it was all a joke. A very sick joke, she thought, but there was always that glimmer of hope inside of her that they could move on and things would be normal again. "If you're sick… you should go to the doctor, or let me take care of you. Like you always do for me, Mommy." Ashlynn bargained. This only broke her mother's face into a scowl and a glare.

"Quiet, Ashlynn! What do we say about good little girls?" Ashlynn quaked with fear as her mother approached her. "Well? What do we say about _good little girls_?" She asked with increasing malice.

"G-good little girls are to be s-seen and n-not heard." Ashlynn whimpered.

"What ELSE do we say?" Her mother asked threateningly.

"Good little girls d-don't… don't sp-speak unless spoken to." She squeaked. Suddenly, her mother relaxed.

"Yes, that's right. Now, sit and be a good little girl while I set up for the game." She stood up and then sat on the floor in front of the coffee table. Ashlynn wept in silence as her mother measured out different scented liquids from crude plastic bottles and poured them into the funny brass bowl. When she was finished preparing the bowl, she bathed the blade of the jeweled knife in the perfume lovingly. She removed the knife from its bath and approached her daughter once again. Ashlynn's lower lip quivered out of fear. "Now, I'd like to say that this isn't going to hurt a bit, but you should know already from getting shots at the doctor's office that that's a complete lie." Ashlynn began to scream as her mother lashed at her with the knife, but her scream was quickly cut off; quite literally.

* * *

"Shit, I think we're too late! Sam, grab her legs! I'll get her torso!"

Ashlynn felt herself being lifted by two pairs of strong hands. She gasped and used what little energy she had to plea for help.

"H-h-help... m-me..." She croaked, and promptly passed out from the exertion of energy. When she woke once again, she realized two things. First, she was alive. Second, she had no idea where she was. She was lying in a bed; that was obvious. Hadn't she just been at home? She reached a hand up to her neck. It felt..._ normal._ She sat up, and then two men in their mid-twenties entered the room. She was so shocked that she began to scream.

"It's okay! We're here to help!" The taller, blond one said.

"What can we do for you? Are you hungry?" The shorter, dark haired one asked.

"If you kidnapped me… I'm warning you right now… I know martial arts! Jiu Jitsu and… Tae Kwan Do!" The tall one rolled his eyes.

"We didn't kidnap you. I know it kind of seems like that, but honestly, we didn't. I will answer any questions that you have, and so will my brother." He said, gesturing towards the shorter man. Ashlynn hadn't expected her kidnappers to be so… polite.

"So… do you have any questions?" The dark haired one asked. Ashlynn knew it was odd that she was handling this so calmly, considering she didn't know who these two men were. What did they want with her? She had already nearly been killed today, and she thought she recognized the two men from her brief moments of consciousness when she was rescued. She thought slowly at first about what she wanted to know, but then it all came rushing out of her.

"Who are you? Where am I? What happened today? What happened to my mom? Why am I alive? Why don't I have a scar on my neck? Why-"

"Whoa, slow down! Let's take it slowly. You've had a tough day. I'll answer everything you've asked so far. My name is Sam Winchester and this is my brother Dean. We did some digging and it turns out that you're our half-sister. About six years ago our dad was on a hunting trip when he met your mom. Right now, you're in the Blue Star Motel in Oregon. Your mom was infected with something called Croatoan virus, and it made her extremely violent. She tried to… to sacrifice you to Satan." Sam cleared his throat awkwardly before continuing. "You're alive because we stopped the ritual before she could finish it. Your soul was halfway between your body and Hell when we found you, and we had to pull all the pieces back together."

"What is Croatoan Virus?" Ashlynn asked.

"It's a disease that makes whoever it infects a rampaging murderer. People with Croatoan have nothing on their minds except killing as many people as they can, even other people who are infected."

"How did my mom get it?"

"We're not sure. It looks like she was given small doses over time, considering how long it took her to plan out your murder before acting on it. Based on how people from town said she was acting, it seems like she started showing signs about a month ago." Ashlynn was silent for a moment as she pondered this new information. She didn't want to believe it, but the timeline fit and it explained a lot. But where was her mother? She couldn't believe that that hadn't been the first thing she asked Sam.

"Sam… where is my mom?" She asked meekly. Sam sighed long and heavily.

"The only way to cure a person of Croatoan is… is to kill them." He finally admitted. Ashlynn's eyes widened in shock and her eyes stung with salty tears. She blinked and let them forge wet tracks down her cheeks, falling from her jawline and pock-marking the motel quilt. Dean, who had been quietly standing in the corner until now, sat next to Ashlynn and pushed the teardrops off her cheeks with his rough textured thumb.

"Do you need some time or…" He trailed off and just looked at his newly discovered sister. He sighed and laid one arm around her shoulders. "I've never been good at this," He said. "I suck at the whole family thing." Ashlynn jumped slightly and groaned.

"What's wrong? Do you feel sick?" Sam asked.

"I've got hiccups," she moaned. "I alwa-hic-always get them whe-hic-when I cry." Sam and Dean shared a glance of confusion. "That's not even the worst part," Ashlynn continued. "I'm a horrible person." She began to cry a little bit harder.

"Why is that?" Sam asked.

"I'm sort of-hic-glad that my-hic-mom is dead."

"I'd think that's kind of normal, with your situation being how it is." Dean assured her.

"It doesn't matter. Haven't you ever heard of unconditional love? She's my mother and I'm supposed to love her no matter what!" Ashlynn pushed Dean's arm off of her shoulders, stood up, and began to pace around the room.

"Well… she did try to kill you." Dean contributed, trying – and failing – to calm Ashlynn down.

"You said she was sick," Ashlynn accused. "If she was sick that means she wasn't really her. My mother loved me and nothing you say will convince me otherwise!" She proclaimed, pointing an accusing index finger at Dean, who was still sitting on the side of the bed.

Sam cleared his throat, and then crossed the room to talk to Dean in a low voice. Dean tried to argue, but Sam urged him on. Dean stood up and left the room.

"I'm going to get dinner," He called over his shoulder. "And Ash… I'm sorry about what I said." The last part came out almost regrettably, and it was clear that apologies were neither a common occurrence for Dean nor his strong point. When they heard the engine of the Impala roar to life outside, Sam sat in a withering arm chair in the corner of the room.

"I'm sorry about him, Ashlynn. He's not very sensitive."

"I don't care about his lack of communication skills right now," Ashlynn aggressed. "I'm more concerned with the fact that you two are insane!"

"I know it seems that way, but-"

"No, don't even finish that sentence!" Ashlynn cut him off. "If your brother, or partner in crime, or whoever he is hadn't already taken the car I would be out of here by now and getting to the nearest police station to report you two whackos!"

"Ashlynn, please listen to me. I know what you're feeling."

"How can you know what I'm feeling?!" She shouted. "Have you ever been kidnapped by two strangers who claim to be related to you?"

"No, but I lost my mother too." Ashlynn turned to face him, her expression no longer painted with rage.

"When?" She asked softly.

"I was only about six months old, but the scars are still there. If you want to know more, you'll have to ask Dean."

"You lost her to the same disease that took my mom?"

"No, but the same people who infected your mom are the ones who stole my life from me before I had a chance to start it." Ashlynn gave up her tirade and belly-flopped onto the same bed she had woken up in. She rested her chin on the back of her hands, fingers interlaced and lying flat on the bed. She tilted her head and rested her right cheek on her knuckles. Her eyes traveled the beige walls of the motel room until she caught her own gaze in a mirror. With widened eyes, she sprang from the bed to confront her reflection. She looked herself up and down in the full length mirror and began to scream.

"Please stop screaming. Someone's going to complain to the management." Sam said, rising from the chair and standing behind her. "You got older. We don't know why, but you're sixteen now. Somewhere in the process, you gained ten years." Ashlynn turned and met his eyes with a searching gaze, but promptly fainted. Sam sighed and picked up Ashlynn's unconscious body. He gently returned her to the bed, but didn't bother to pull the covers over her. He crossed the threshold into the other room. Upon the Winchesters arrival, the clerk's heart had melted when he saw Ashlynn looking so peaceful in her brother's arms, Dean claiming she had fallen asleep in the car. He gave them an upgrade on their room free of charge. Sitting in the small kitchenette, Sam pulled out his cell phone and began to make calls. First on his list was Dean.

"What's up, Sammy?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm on my way back with dinner. How's it going with Ash?"

"She saw herself in the mirror and fainted. Honestly, I'm surprised she didn't notice sooner. I mean, she shot up about two or three feet."

"Whatever. As long as we get her fed and figure out what our next move is. I just hope she doesn't have a concussion."

"All the crap that's going on and you're worried she has a concussion?"

"Her mom isn't a threat to her anymore."

"But the demons are."

"Good point. Anyways, let's talk about this later. I'll be there in a few minutes." Sam ended the call and held down the number '2' button for his speed dial.

"You taking care of the girl?" Bobby asked without a greeting.

"She's fainted about two or three times but I think she's okay. Dean's coming back with some food."

"Good. The girl is probably starving, considering that she technically hasn't eaten in ten years."

"Yeah. We'll make sure she gets enough to eat. Do you have any news?"

"I haven't even heard of this type of sacrifice before. You might need to ask the angel about this one."

"Okay Bobby. Thanks anyways. We'll let you know if we find anything."

Bobby grunted and ended the call. Sam flipped his phone shut and leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes and sighed yet again. He seemed to be sighing a lot that night, but he had no other way to express what heavy stress this put on the Winchester brothers. Welcoming a new member to this lifestyle wasn't going to be easy, and Sam was thinking that she was more trouble than she was worth. But, seeing as Ashlynn's grandparents were both dead and her mother had been an only child, Ashlynn was their responsibility now. Sam was still brooding when he heard Dean's key click in the lock and the door opening. Sam crossed back from the kitchenette to the main area of the motel room. Dean dropped the greasy bag of diner food onto the table between the beds and sat in the arm chair.

"I take it she's still out cold." Dean said.

"Yeah, she's been that way since right before I called you."

"What's Bobby got to say?"

"He says that he's never heard of the type of sacrifice her mother performed on her. He thinks we should ask Cas about it."

"Who's Cas?" Ashlynn asked, groaning with sleepiness.

"He's a friend of ours who might be able to help us." Dean said.

"Why do we need help?"

"Whoever convinced your mom to sacrifice you to Satan might still be after you." Sam cleared his throat, warning Dean not to overload the poor girl with this kind of information. "Sorry. You probably don't want to talk about it." Dean apologized.

"Oh, I'm totally over that now." Ashlynn said. Sam and Dean shared a confused expression.

"You're… over it?"

"Yeah, my mom tried to kill me. So what? She's gone now."

"What the hell are we going to do with you?" Dean asked, slightly awed at how quickly she could change emotions.

"Find your friend Cas and ask him." Ashlynn replied.


	2. Things Have Changed

It was really quite simple. Castiel didn't know where he was. At first, he couldn't even move. He lay still on the floor for what seemed like an eternity. But Castiel knew what an eternity truly felt like, and waited as patiently as he could. Eventually, he could feel the blood returning to his fingers, and he pushed himself into an upright sitting position. He took a sweeping gaze around the area and determined that he was in a warehouse of some kind. Most likely abandoned, he thought, considering the layer of dust on the gray, dismal, concrete floor and lack of any machinery or storage. He stood and brushed the dust off of his trench coat. He fished around in his pockets until he found the cellphone Dean had given him. The battery was dead. He returned the dead phone to his pocket and reached into the inside of his coat. He procured a large silver knife and gripped it tightly in his hand. He ventured forward into a patch of sunlight streaming through the skylight window. He squinted in the bright light and froze for a moment, as if he was bracing himself for an impact. He sighed. He exited the warehouse silently and found his way to a highway after wandering across soft grass and noisy gravel paths. The green sign a bit of a ways down the empty road told him that the nearest town was seven miles away. Once again, he braced himself, shook his head, and began walking.

* * *

Ashlynn gasped suddenly, and her two brothers jumped.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked worriedly.

"You have food!" Ashlynn groaned pleasurably. "I haven't eaten in _ages_!" She stood up and grabbed the greasy paper bag. She ripped it open and pulled out three different types of burgers, all wrapped in the same paper. She looked up questioningly.

"I didn't know what you liked, so I got a few burgers. One's just a plain cheeseburger, another's got onions and lettuce and junk, and the other's plain without any cheese." Dean explained. Ashlynn shrugged and tore into one at random. She stuffed the plain hamburger into her mouth with one hand and pulled a paper cup full of fries from the bag. She was ravenous, and she took turns shoving bites of her burger and handfuls of fries into her mouth. Sam and Dean stared in awe.

"No doubt about it," Dean laughed. "She's a Winchester." Sam frowned at him. Obviously the two brothers couldn't agree on how to carry the conversation. Ashlynn forgot about her theory that she would find out what she needed to know by listening to Sam and Dean argue as she wolfed down burger after burger with extreme gusto. When she had finished her meal, she fell back and laid spread eagle on the motel carpet.

"Ash, we've got a bit of a plan for where we want to take you." Dean said, pulling her back to reality. "We've got a friend named Jo who runs a bar down in Nebraska. One of the major issues we've got to deal with right now is you getting used to your new body, and I think she'll be able to help. She's got twelve years on you now that you're sixteen, but we'd prefer to leave all the girly stuff for her to help you figure out." He said bluntly.

"Okay," Ashlynn shrugged. "I'm cool with that."

"So we're going to have to leave fairly soon," Sam said awkwardly. "And I think… I think maybe you're going to want to change clothes." Ashlynn furrowed her brow and looked down. She was still wearing the khaki shorts and pink t-shirt she had been wearing when her mother tied her to that chair, but they had shrunk so much (or she had grown so much) that the shorts now fit her like khaki underwear and the t-shirt was more of a tube top with sleeves around her new cleavage. She blushed and scurried back into the bedroom. She flung open Dean's suitcase and pulled out one of his flannel shirts. She stripped off her shorts, t-shirt, and the tiny panties whose seams had burst under her rapidly expanding hips. The shirt hung down to her knees. She buttoned it up as much as it took to cover her torso, and then took one of Dean's belts and cinched it around her waist. In a way, it was actually pretty stylish. It was like a plaid dress, once she had rolled the sleeves up a bit. She walked back into the other room.

"Problem solved!" She announced. Sam and Dean shared an incredulous look. Then, Dean bust out laughing.

"I am so glad you're my sister." He said, choking back tears of laughter. Sam wasn't nearly as amused.

"Come on, let's get out of here." He said impatiently.

"That poor sap at the counter is going to be so confused," Dean laughed. "I mean, I had to cover you with my jacket so he wouldn't see what you were wearing." Sam concluded that Dean was enjoying himself far too much.

"Regardless, we have to get going if we're going to make it to Nebraska. It's about a day's drive from Salem."

* * *

"I require a cell phone." Castiel said, placing his on the counter of a cell phone kiosk at a shopping mall.

"What's wrong with this one?" The teenager working the counter asked.

"It's passed on. There's no power."

"Oh, the battery died. You don't need a new phone; you just need to charge it." Castiel looked puzzled. He stared at the young boy.

"Charge?" He asked after an awkward silence.

"Um... yeah. You have to get more power into the battery."

"How do I do that?" The boy blinked in confusion.

"You just plug the charger into the wall and connect it to the phone." He said slowly.

Castiel stared at him in complete silence. "Um..." the boy said, obviously uncomfortable. "You know what? Um, since business has been kind of slow today, I'll let you charge it here for free." He reached into one of the drawers in the kiosk and pulled out a simple charger that fit Castiel's phone. He plugged it into the outlet behind the counter and connected it to the dead cell phone. Castiel watched in amazement as the screen lit up. "Er, it will probably take about fifteen minutes for the battery to charge fully."

"All right," Castiel said. "I will wait here." The boy sighed. He felt like he was about to face the longest fifteen minutes of his life.

* * *

The motel clerk was indeed surprised. His eyebrows skyrocketed when he saw Ashlynn not only conscious, but wearing a shirt that brushed her ankles and hung off of her body, tamed only by a thick leather belt around her waist.

"Sorry to cut our visit short, Jeeves." Dean joked. "But we've got to get going. Family business and all." The clerk nodded with his mouth still gaping open and watched the three walk away. Sam and Dean took their respective places in the front seat and Ashlynn threw herself into the back and stretched out across the seats. The twenty-four hour voyage, Ashlynn's first road trip, had officially begun.

* * *

"Sir... could you stop staring at me, please?" The boy asked. The strange man in the trench coat had been staring intently at him while he worked on the computer.

"What is that object?" Castiel asked.

"This?" The boy asked, gesturing to the laptop on the counter. With an affirmative nod of his head from Castiel, the boy explained, not even surprised at this point that the strange man didn't know what a computer was. "It's a computer. We use it to go online and play games, research and learn about new things, and meet and talk with people."

"I know someone with one of these things but he never had the chance to explain it to me. I know there is something called the 'internet,' what is that?"

"That's what I was talking about just a minute ago, about getting online." He turned to the computer and clicked into his web browser. "This is the first page that shows up when you open the browser," he explained as a fascinated Castiel gazed at the empty search engine on the screen. "On this website you can look for things and people."

"All people and all things are cataloged?"

"Everything of the modern world and most of the classic, yes." Castiel leaned on the counter.

"I would like to perform a search." He said.

"Um, sure, I can do that for you. What are you looking for?"

"Dean Winchester." The boy turned his attention to the screen and typed in the name Castiel had given him. "Weird... there's no results. I guess he doesn't exist, as far as the media is concerned," The boy thought aloud.

"This is excellent news." Castiel said with a slight nod of his head. He straightened back up and fell silent again. Castiel just stared at the boy, considering him. He had average length, messy brown hair, which did not help very much in covering the sea of tiny red bumps spanning his forehead. His eyes were that deep blue color that reminded one of a day spent sunbathing at the beach. He was fairly attractive, Castiel thought, at least by the standards he had learned from those few humans he had met.

"Sir?" The boy interdicted nervously, breaking Castiel from his trance. "Um, your phone is done charging. You can keep the charger, as a gift from my employer." In all honesty, he just didn't want this strange man turning up at his kiosk again and figured it best to give him the charger. Castiel continued to stare at the boy, who was growing more embarrassed by the second, as personified by his reddening cheeks.

"What is your name?" Castiel asked randomly.

"Er, Ryan. It's Ryan." He said with an awkward chuckle. Castiel picked up the phone and charger.

"You make sure that you live a long, healthy, and relatively normal life, Ryan." He said as he put his things into one of the myriad of pockets on his trench coat. Ryan mumbled a reply to Castiel's back as he walked away from the kiosk and into the chaos of the mall.


	3. Casseroles and Condolonces

The road trip turned out to be extremely uneventful. Ashlynn spent most of her time sleeping or talking to Dean. On one occasion, twenty hours in, Dean took the opportunity to call out his brother's gloominess while Ashlynn was snoring in the backseat.

"C'mon bro, lighten up. We're going to see Jo!"

"I'm just keeping my guard up, Dean." Sam retorted.

"What, you think a sixteen year old girl with a fainting problem can take you?"

"She's been in the Pit, Dean. I can't be too careful."

"Sam, she's a sixteen year old kid and we're the only family she's got."

"What if she lost her soul? You remember how I was. She could have the idea planted in her head to kill us at the first chance."

"The first chance would have been when she woke up in that motel room."

"Demons work in mysterious and illogical ways, Dean," Sam raised his voice slightly. "It's entirely possible that they needed information before disposing of us."

"If information is what they want, they have other ways to get it than to sic our half-sister on us."

Sam sighed and dropped the subject. Soon enough they found themselves on the outskirts of Salem, Nebraska and stopped in a gas station. The sudden stop in motion of the Impala roused Ashlynn. The three stepped out onto the asphalt.

"Where are we?" She asked, her words distorted and stretched by a yawn.

"Salem, Nebraska. We're about twenty minutes away from Jo's place." Dean answered promptly. Sam shot him a look.

"What, like the demons don't already know where the roadhouse is? You're being ridiculous. There's no reason she shouldn't know where we are." Dean was obviously extremely upset with his brother.

"Did you really have to include the time estimate?" Sam retorted. "She could turn around and send them a message to get there and prepare for us to arrive at exactly that time."

"Damn it, Sam, quit being so paranoid!" Dean shouted.

"Whoa, what's going on here?" Ashlynn asked.

"I'll be honest, I think you're working with the demons, and frankly, I don't trust you." Sam snapped. That was the final straw. Dean grabbed Sam by his collar.

"For the last time: she's not dangerous. Now you can get used to that, or you can leave until you do."

"Empty threat," Sam gloated. "I know you're bluffing." He pushed Dean's hand off of his shoulder. "But if we're going to make a scene, I think I'll leave now." With that, Sam stalked off across the gas station and disappeared into the expanse of woods behind the mini-mart.

"What was that all about?" Ashlynn asked. Dean shook his head.

"Damn, I've never been so cruel to him." Dean growled and sat on the hood of the Impala. "Come sit with me." He suggested. Ashlynn nodded and hopped onto the hood next to him.

"Sam's been having some trouble… trusting you." Dean said slowly. Ashlynn choked back the anger that was suddenly boiling in her throat.

"Why?" She strained out the question.

"He's spent some time down under too," Dean explained, adjusting himself on the hood of the car. "He lost his soul because of it and things got kind of… dangerous, I guess. He wasn't himself. I guess he's worried that you're going to be a danger to us."

"I'm his _sister_." Ashlynn hissed.

"We met our half-brother once. It turned out he was killed by a ghoul who used his body to capture us and it tried to kill us too."

"You pulled me out of Hell; I must mean something to you."

"No one should have to deal with that place, especially not a six year old. We thought we'd have you out quickly. I mean, time passes slowly down there, but we've never heard of someone physically aging. He doesn't know what about you is changed and he doesn't like it. He's got his guard up."

"Why don't you?"

"Family is the most important thing in the world. You're my baby sister. I didn't trust our half-brother when I met him, and I learned from it. It gets lonely, just me and Sam. Sammy grew up, so I don't have to take care of him anymore."

"So basically, I'm your charity case." Ashlynn accused bitterly. Dean laughed.

"Kid, there's no charity in hunting. There's only dong what's got to be done. You're a Winchester now, so everything you know is wrong. There is no good and evil, just people who justify themselves on those principles." Ashlynn put her hands behind her head and watched the night sky, thinking about what he had said. "In the end, we're all just trying to survive. A vampire may not enjoy drinking the life from another living thing, but if it doesn't it will die." He continued.

"So why stop them?" Ashlynn pointed out. "If everyone's just trying to survive, why interfere for the sake of humanity?"

"People are really stupid. A single person can consider the possibilities and maybe make the right choice, but people as a collective whole have a tendency to panic. They don't like change. We figure that it's better to keep them in the dark." The pair was silent for a short period of time.

"Do you think I'm missing my soul?" Ashlynn inquired.

"No. When you lose your soul you stop having emotions. It's kind of like having depression except you're not sad. You stop feeling everything altogether." Ashlynn was relieved.

"How can I get Sam to trust me?"

"I don't think there's anything you can do, kiddo. Just be a good sister to him and he'll get over himself."

Ashlynn shifted gears. "So I lost ten years of life, but gained the appearance. Do you think I'll get all the other stuff that comes with it? Like… periods?" Her voice fluttered on the last word, marveling at how awkward the conversation was becoming.

"I knew this conversation would happen," Dean groaned. "Honestly, I don't really know. I don't know if Lucifer has the kind of power to stop that. They might have done a lot to your body. We don't even know if they forced your intelligence on you or if you would have really grown up to be this smart."

"I was the first kid in my class to learn how to read. I remember doing this 'star student of the week' thing where every week a different kid made a poster all about them and had the opportunity to present something to our class. I read a book by Dr. Seuss out loud."

"How long ago was that?"

"One month," Ashlynn replied, laughing. "Or maybe it was ten years and one month ago. Jeez, how does time pass for me now?"

"With me and Sam you can probably say 'a month.' Around other people, it's probably best to think about your reply." Dean sat up and hopped off the hood of the car. He filled up the tank and leaned against the car while he waited for the numbers on the pump to stop spinning. Eventually, Sam sulked silently back to the Impala and took his place in the passenger seat. They completed the journey in silence, and soon enough the wheels of the Impala were churning in the gravel of the Harvelle Roadhouse driveway. The three Winchesters stepped out of the Impala, and Dean was the first to speak.

"Let's get this over with. Jo's going to be pretty pissed that we haven't come around for a while." They pulled open the roadhouse doors and entered the dining area, bathed in moonlight. "Jo!" Dean called into the darkness, his tone light. "I've got a case that might interest you!" They heard some footsteps and muffled swearing from upstairs. Then, a disgruntled woman in a ratty t-shirt and flannel pajama pants came down the stairs, flipping the lights on at the top. She held a hunting knife in her right hand.

"What the hell d'you two think you're doing, barging into my place in the middle of the night?!" She demanded fiercely, brandishing the hunting knife at the eldest Winchester. Dean smiled and threw up his hands.

"Where are your manners?" He teased. He flicked his thumb out and pointed to Ashlynn, standing on his left. "You haven't even introduced yourself." The woman lowered the knife to her side and looked at Ashlynn. She gasped and her eyes widened as the knife fell to the varnished floors with a sharp clattering.

"It's her!" She exclaimed. "How did you pull this off? Didn't you say she was in elementary school?"

"Whoa, slow down!" Dean grabbed her shoulders. "That's why we're here. We don't know how and we don't know why but she was six when she went into the Pit and she came out sixteen."

"Just go with it, Jo." Sam urged when he saw the expression on her face. "All we need you to do is get her set up with some clothes. You know, like… girl clothes." Jo dropped her shocked expression and sighed in annoyance at Sam.

"You can't walk her into a mall and set her loose on a Victoria's Secret worker?" She demanded. Dean furrowed his brow.

"You can do that?" He asked in surprise. Jo rolled her eyes.

"I'll take her into town tomorrow and get it taken care of." She promised, bending down to retrieve her knife. "But you two better have a _damn_ good idea about what this poor girl needs." She wrapped an arm around Ashlynn's shoulders. "How have you been coping, darlin'?" She coaxed in a motherly manner.

"Okay, I guess." Ashlynn replied with a shrug. "It was pretty weird at first. New body and all."

"How can you be so calm about all this?" Jo asked incredulously. Ashlynn shrugged again.

"I've had like, two days to cope." Jo sighed and shook her head.

"You're definitely a Winchester." Jo led the newly christened Winchester up the stairs and helped her settle in. Dean made himself comfortable at the bar and Sam retrieved two beers from the fridge.

"So," he started, situating himself next to Dean at the bar. "What did you two talk about?" Dean twisted the cap off his bottle as he spoke.

"I told her why you were struggling to trust her. She understood. She asked me the question I was really dreading."

"Girly-stuff type questions?"

"Yeah. I'm glad Jo's still around so she can do this for us. You know, I really do think you could be a bit more accepting of the kid. She's been through enough, and I don't need you acting weird."

"We've been through ten times more, Dean!"

"Sam, the girl just lost a _decade _of her life overnight. Suddenly she's got two monster-hunting brothers, and her mother if dead after trying to kill her, and we're the only family she has!" It was rare that Dean raised his voice this much toward his brother.

"I know what Lucifer is capable of, Dean. I had to share every waking moment with him in my head! I can't trust her until I'm positive she's not wired to cut our throats while we sleep!"

"If she had been sent to kill us, I'm sure she would have already done it."

"Or Lucifer could be playing one of his sick games with us." Sam fired back. Neither brother had touched his beer. To break the silence, Dean picked his up and took a long swig. "After what happened with Adam, I just can't be so quick to trust her."

"What's it going to take for you to accept her?"

"I don't know." The two brothers fell silent and drank their beers. Jo returned and grabbed a beer for herself.

"So for two days straight the girl's had nothing to wear but plaid shirts?" She scolded.

"Well, they are long enough for her to wear like dresses." Dean rationalized.

"Well, lucky for you, a guy in town owes me a favor," she said as she twisted the cap off her beer. "I can probably get most of her wardrobe free." Dean laughed.

"I'd hate to be the guy who owes you."

"Dean Winchester, you owe me more favors than I can count!" She noticed Sam reveling in his brother's lecture and added, "The same goes for you, Sam! The both of you owe me already, and now you're adding this to the tab. Hell, I would've turned you away if it hadn't been for that poor girl's sake." Her words silenced Sam's laughter. "Now," Jo said, leaning across the bar. "Tell me what the hell is going on here." Dean threw a pleading look at his brother. He had run himself ragged from explaining and discussing things.

"A demon convinced her mother to sacrifice her and send her to the Pit. We got Cas to pull her out and for some reason, she aged ten years. She went from being a first grader to a teenager in a matter of hours."

"Damn," Jo said, swigging her beer. "Why's she so calm, then?"

"Yeah, that's weird. We don't really know why she's so relaxed." Dean commented.

"It could be that she's just putting off dealing with it," Sam said. "People, especially teens, push things to the side that they don't want to deal with."

"Don't act sympathetic," Dean snapped. "You won't even give her a chance."

"We've been over this, Dean! I can't trust her!"

"Whoa, boys!" Jo slammed her hands on the counter. "There'll be no fightin' in my bar!" Sam and Dean glared at each other. "Now, what the hell's going on with you two?"

"Dean doesn't have his guard up. He's trusting her already."

"This is ridiculous," Dean snarled. "Jo, you're not our frigging marriage counselor!"

"Maybe not, but you need my help." She looked at Dean and didn't break her gaze until he looked her in the eyes. "Now, I don't think the girl is dangerous, but Sam's got a point. Crazy things go down in the Pit, but I think you could handle this better." She switched her gaze to Sam during the last sentence. "I know what it's like to lose a mother, and so do you boys. So show the girl a little human decency."

"What happened to Ellen?" Dean asked. He had heard the news but never had the courage to ask for fear of angering Jo.

"Hunting accident," she chuckled slightly. "It's true, but an entirely different story between me and the newspapers."

"What's the article say?" Sam asked.

"Mauled by a bear." Jo answered nonchalantly.

"And the ugly truth?" Dean inquired.

"Werewolf. She lost control."

"Damn," Dean sighed. "So you've been running this place all alone?"

"Shut her down for the first couple of weeks, just until people quit comin' around with casseroles and condolences. Business slowed down when she passed. Too many memories, I guess." She chugged down the rest of her beer. "Well boys, I'm going to bed. Put yourselves in a guest room or sleep outside, I don't care." She disappeared up the steps. Sam and Dean followed suit once her footsteps were completely muffled. Sam headed directly to the guest room he and dean always used, but stopped first next to Ashlynn's room and peered through the crack in the door. Her back was to the door, her long black hair spilling onto the pillow. Her chest rose and fell rhythmically, unperturbed by Dean's voice when he appeared behind Sam.

"I really hope you can find it in you to trust her." He patted Sam once on the back and then shuffled past him. Eventually, everyone had settled down and was falling asleep, but their slumber was interrupted by a piercing scream. In the blink of an eye Dean was up and in Ashlynn's room.

"Hey, what's wrong?!" He yelled. Ashlynn didn't reply, she clutched her arms together and dug her nails into her skin.

"They're coming for me," she moaned painfully. Her back was still turned to her lone observer. "I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK!" Her nails pierced deep enough to draw blood. She began wailing and thrashing around, eventually steadying herself on the wall and bashing her head into it. "I'LL NEVER GO BACK! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!" Dean jumped onto the bed and grabbed her.

"I need help restraining her!" Dean yelled, trapping her arms to her sides. Jo and Sam, who had been right behind Dean in responding to her cries, grabbed her legs and pinned them down while Dean tried to talk some sense into her.

"Don't make me go back, Dean," she sobbed. "It hurts, it hurts so much!" They gripped her tighter. "NO! STOP! LET ME GO!" She began to thrash violently again.

"Loosen up a bit, guys!" Dean commanded.

"Are you crazy?! She'll kill herself!" Sam shouted back.

"Sam, just do it! She thinks she's back in the Pit!" Sam and Jo relinquished their grip just enough so that she could feel some control. Dean directed them to let go completely. They weren't so sure it was a good idea, but they trusted him. They would be right there to help him if he asked for it or not. Dean embraced Ashlynn tightly and began to speak softly into her ear. "Ash, wake up. It's just a dream. It's me, Dean, and I've got you. You're safe." He continued to assure her of her location and safety until she opened her eyes and quit thrashing.

"He still wants me." She uttered shakily. Her eyes closed again and she was asleep.

"I'm going to stay in here tonight," Dean said, absentmindedly stroking Ashlynn's hair. Sam nodded and left the room. Jo was right after him. Dean lay next to his sister and made sure she could feel his presence beside her. Eventually, he fell asleep too. The next thing he knew, someone was shaking his shoulder. Dean opened his eyes and saw Ashlynn, hair tousled and ees still showing hints of restlessness.

"Morning, kiddo. Sleep well?" he asked.

"Yeah, well enough. Jo's making pancakes." Dean sat up and further ruffled her hair. "Hey!" She protested halfheartedly. His teasing was cut short by Jo's voice calling up the stairs to inform them that she had used up all the batter, and thus breakfast was ready. Ashlynn raced Dean down the stairs and crashed into something that resembled a sitting position in the chair next to Sam's.

"Well, you sure seem chipper today, darlin'." Jo cooed as she flipped a stack of pancakes onto Ashlynn's plate.

"Yeah, I slept pretty well," she replied, drowning her pancakes in maple syrup. "But there was this big goon that kept elbowing me." She stuck her tongue out at Dean.

"Hey, it was your fault I had to be there in the first place." Dean sat down opposite Ashlynn, on Sam's right hand side.

"What do you mean?" She was genuinely confused. Dean frowned and shifted closer. Jo paused from serving everyone to see how he would handle this.

"You began to scream your head off pretty late last night," he started. "We had to hold you down because you were scratching your arms until they bled and slamming your head into the wall."

"Really?" Ashlynn's eyes widened.

"Yeah, you kept screaming 'I don't want to go back, you can't make me go back' and stuff like that."

"I do remember having a nightmare about being in Hell, but it wasn't that strong."

"I think you may have been having a flashback," Sam interjected. "Something similar happened to me when I got out of the Pit." Jo returned to passing out food before occupying the fourth and final chair at one of the roadhouse's many dining room tables.

"Did anything like that happen to you when you got out, Dean?" Ashlynn had overheard the brothers talking about being in Hell but she had never raised the issue.

"Uh, I'd rather not talk about it." He muttered, and promptly stuffed a forkful of pancakes in his mouth. Jo saw this as her cue to cut in.

"So Ashlynn, you and I are goin' to have some girl time today." She promised as she forked strips of bacon onto her plate.

"What am I going to wear into town? People might look at me funny if I'm still wearing Dean's shirt." Ashlynn gazed down at herself as she stabbed at her pancakes.

"You can borrow some of my old things from when I was your age, darlin'. I'll have to hunt through some boxes for 'em, but I'm sure I can scrounge up a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt for you."

Ashlynn nodded and the rest of the meal was eaten in near complete silence. When Dean and Sam had finished, they pushed their plates closer to the center of the table and walked to the door simultaneously.

"Just where d'you think you boys are goin'?" Jo asked.

"We're taking the Impala and just… cruising."

"Like hell you are. You boys are comin' with me and your sister."

"No way, that wasn't part of the deal." Dean protested.

"Well, that's how it's goin' to be. After what this girl went through last night alone, I thought you'd be trippin' over yourself to escort her and make her feel safe." Immediately understanding the tactic Jo was using, Ashlynn cast her gaze downward and did her best to look vulnerable. Dean fidgeted, fighting himself mentally and physically.

"Fine." He growled in defeat. Sam sighed and slumped against the wall next to the door. Jo and Ashlynn piled up the dishes from breakfast and dumped them into the kitchen.

"All right, you boys wait here while I get this girl ready for public viewing." Sam and Dean melted into dining room chairs while they waited for the girls. Ashlynn and Jo rushed up the stairs and into the storage room.

"Why did you force them to come with? I think we'll be okay alone."

"Well honeybunch," she said sweetly as she ripped open a cardboard box labeled "high school." "We need someone to carry our bags, don't we?" Ashlynn's eyes widened and she giggled. Soon enough Ashlynn was outfitted in a freshly cleaned pair of Jo's panties, dark blue flare jeans, and a slightly too large t-shirt Jo had picked up at a Blink 182 concert. Ashlynn and Jo did not share the same bra size, so the point of the band shirt was to hide Ashlynn's chest as conservatively as possible. When Jo was satisfied with her design, she realized they had another problem. Ashlynn had no shoes.

"It's okay," Ashlynn offered. "I don't really like wearing shoes anyway."

"Sweetie, it ain't a matter whether you like it or not, it's required that you wear shoes when you walk around in public." Ashlynn uttered a faint "oh" at Jo's words and stared down at her bare feet. "I'll bet I got somethin' you can squeeze into in my closet."

Ashlynn followed Jo into her bedroom and sat down on the bed. Jo dug around in the depths of her closet and extracted an old, worn pair of running shoes. "They ain't the prettiest things you could have, but they'll get the job done until we get to a shoe store."

Ashlynn was finally ready to leave. The girls came back down the steps and Jo smiled deviously at the Winchester brothers.

"Ready to go?" Dean asked halfheartedly, feigning interest in the task at hand. Jo and Ashlynn nodded and walked out the door. The men followed them. Sam and Dean may have agreed to accompany the girls on this shopping trip, but they would not give up the hierarchy of seating in the Impala. Jo and Ashlynn made themselves comfortable in the backseat and Jo gave directions to their destination from her seat. Finally the car was parked in a vast sea of various colors, despite Dean's complaining. "It's not right to park my baby someplace where all these people could scratch her paint job or bust the rear bumper." He moaned.

"Dean, your baby will be fine. The quicker we get in, the quicker we get out. Let's go." Jo commanded firmly as she slid out of Dean's beloved Impala. Dean sighed, Sam rolled his eyes, and the highly dysfunctional extended family marched through the rows of cars and into the tacky shopping mall. Jo seemed to know where she was going, so the Winchesters just followed her closely.


	4. Stereotypes and a Shopping Spree

"We need to meet up with the guy who owes me," she explained over her shoulder. "So our first stop is the food court." Ashlynn swept her gaze across the stores as they marched, and she didn't like what she saw. These kinds of clothes were completely impractical for the teenage monster hunter, and she hated all of them. She wallowed in her self-pity and decided to just take blows as they came. She tried her best to hide her sulking about the bright patterns and tight seams. The four soon found themselves in front of a McDonald's cut into one side of the food court. The smell of grease and the beeping of various fryers mingled with hurried speech and harsh laughter from the customers. Bypassing the order counter completely, Jo led them deeper into the restaurant and slid into a booth where a rather large man was thoroughly occupied by a burger bathed in beef fat and those curious little French fries that were oh-so addictive. Without thinking, Ashlynn slid in next to her. The man looked up, gasped, and tried to wiggle out of the booth. Anticipating his rush to get away, Dean quickly sat down next to him. There was barely any room for him; his muscles may have enlarged his body, but he was still rather trimmed. The greasy man's love handles rippled and piled upon his hips.

"Howdy there, Dwight!" Jo said pleasantly. Ashlynn was repulsed by this man, not because of his weight but because of his apparent lack of hygiene. He seemed to be the kind of person that spent most of their time sweating, no matter how lazy they were. Perspiration glazed his forehead and what little hair he had was combed back across his balding scalp. His teeth were yellowing and he wore thick glasses that enlarged his dark eyes. Dwight whined gutturally. Dean was obviously disgusted to be sitting next to this walking grease trap, especially when rancid wet circles appeared under his arms, staining the pinstriped fabric of his "business casual" collared shirt. Jo reached across the table and grabbed a fry from his tray. "I'm here to collect," she said before popping the fry into her mouth. "If you recall, you owe me. You owe me big time." The sweaty man mopped his brow and grunted several times as if he was trying to align his vocal chords for proper human speech.

"W-why can't you leave me alone, Joanna?" He whimpered.

"A promise is a promise, Dwight." Jo replied, leaning across the table. "And you promised me quite a bit for gettin' that poltergeist out." Dwight shifted nervously in his seat. "No loopholes, big boy. This is one situation you ain't goin' to be able to wriggle out of." Dwight sighed and put his hands on the table, pushing the tray away.

"What do you want?" He asked in defeat.

"I need access to a couple of your stores without payin'. We've got a teenage orphan here who needs clothing faster than you can finish that burger." Dean, realizing this man was no longer going anywhere, quickly stood and joined his brother in their awkward standby surveillance of the situation unfolding before them. Dwight sighed again.

"Which ones?" He moaned.

"I'm thinkin' Victoria's Secret, whatever you've got in the likes of shoes, and someplace I can get my hands on a cell phone."

"That's a tall order, Joanna…"

"Dwight, I let it fly the first time. You call me Jo or I knock your teeth out. Also, I don't care if it's a tall order, it's still got to be filled."

Dwight looked as though he was about to burst into tears. Instead, he mumbled his agreement and bowed his head. "Great! Let's go shopping, darlin'!" She wrapped an affectionate arm around Ashlynn's shoulder and squeezed gently. The girls had absolutely no trouble exiting the booth, but their business partner needed several attempts with breaks in-between to soak up the moisture threatening his vision. Sam and Dean stood by impatiently and Sam glanced at his watch several times. Jo stood quietly and smiled to herself, enjoying Dwight's discomfort. Ashlynn simply stood by Jo and thought to herself.

When Dwight was free from the plastic booth, the group left the food court and took the elevator (Dwight refused to walk up the stairs) to the second floor of the mall. It was slow progress because of their sweaty companion, but they had all day and even all night if Jo needed him to keep the stores open for them. Dean made sure that Jo was always in his line of sight, fearing being lost in this unfamiliar territory.

Suddenly, everything was pink. The group was standing outside a Victoria's Secret with obnoxious hot pink banners advertising different bras and storewide sales as backdrops for the polka-dot and striped cloth dummies that modeled the products for window shoppers. Dwight fumbled for a moment with his handkerchief and then spoke.

"I'll go talk to the girls at the register and their manager and tell them to give you whatever you want." Without waiting for a reply, he shuffled into the store and made a beeline for the employees standing at the cash registers. Jo and the Winchesters hung back while Dwight explained and gestured to the group, and were then greeted by a cheery salesgirl and ushered inside. Sam and Dean opted to wait outside. Dwight followed their lead but kept his distance. He was suspicious of all hunters.

"Do you know your bra size, honey?" The salesgirl asked. Gaining a negative response, the salesgirl, whose nametag identified her as Megan, led Ashlynn and Jo towards the fitting rooms.

"Ash, d'you want me to come in with you or should I wait out here?" Jo asked with concern. Ashlynn had been clinging to her all day but Jo was unsure if she would be brave enough to ask for company. Ashlynn nodded and grabbed Jo's hand, pulling her into the fitting room.

"So, is this the first bra fitting you've ever had?" Megan asked. Ashlynn nodded again. She was usually so talkative around her brothers; Jo found it odd that she couldn't find any words with the salesgirl. "Okay, since this is your first time I'll try to go easy on you. Now, I'll need you to take off your shirt so I can measure you." Ashlynn looked painfully at Jo.

"Do it, sweetie. It's all right, you're in good company." Jo reassured her. Ashlynn bowed her head and removed the t-shirt Jo had lent her. Megan pulled the measuring tape from her shoulders and began to work.

"Okay, stand up straight and relax your shoulders." She instructed. Ashlynn did as she was told and waited for the whole embarrassing ordeal to be done with. "Looks to me like you're a size 32A. That's completely normal for a girl of sixteen. So, the next step is to get you some of our different styles and see which one you like best." Megan opened the top drawer of a dresser in the corner of the room and pulled out a black plastic bin full of bras in Ashlynn's size.

"Um, before you begin with the recommendations, we've got some restrictions." Jo interjected. "No push-ups, the straps need to be strong, and we need at least three high quality sports bras." Megan listened intently and mentally toned down her sales pitch. A salesgirl's job is to sell the most they can, and the most expensive they can. Megan taught Ashlynn how to work the clasp and how to put on sports bras. After half an hour in the cramped pink dressing room, Ashlynn had chosen three different styles; an all-around sports bra that she saw herself wearing quite often, a racer-back style that clasped in the front between the cups, and a t-shirt bra that kept her fully covered and comfortable under her shirts.

"Now comes the fun part!" Megan chirped excitedly. "Now you get to go out into the store and pick your favorite patterns and colors!" Ashlynn sighed. She was wishing that this part of the trip could just be over with so she could get back in the Impala with her brothers. Jo obviously felt her pain, as she made a demand to the salesgirl.

"We're not in the market for anything too fancy, so if you could just grab us three of each in neutral tones, like tan and black, and bring them to the register we'd really appreciate it. We're goin' to grab some underwear for her and meet you up there."

"Of course!" Megan enthused. She obviously thought that since the mall president had these ladies marked as VIP's, she would have some kind of commission from this sale. Megan returned the basket of sample bras to the dresser and left to fetch the requested merchandise. Jo sighed with relief when she heard the clicking of Megan's heels fade away.

"That girl is far too enthusiastic about other women's bodies." She commented. Ashlynn chuckled and pulled the borrowed t-shirt back over her head. When she was ready, Jo wrapped an affectionate arm around Ashlynn's shoulders, as she had done many times that day. It made Ashlynn feel a lot safer to have Jo by her side in the madness of the shopping mall. They chose fourteen simple pairs, enough to last her two weeks or more if necessary. Jo dropped them on the counter for Megan to wrap in tissue paper and waited impatiently. Finally she was finished and pushed the bag towards Jo.

"If you ever need anything else in the future, just ask for me!" She advised with a hint of her everlasting enthusiasm. Jo smiled and picked up the obnoxious pink bag emblazoned with the store's name. The girls left the store and found Sam and Dean leaned against the glass display of mannequins. Dean stood up quickly, excited to get to an area without assaulting pop music coming from every direction.


	5. 37 Cellphones

"All right boys, next up is shoes. Where's Dwight?"

"He wandered over there and he's been mumbling to himself this whole time." Sam answered awkwardly.

"DWIGHT!" Jo barked. The man cringed and let out a whimper. Jo smiled. "I love to see him squirm." Dwight hobbled over. "Show us where the shoe store is." Dwight gestured across the current floor and pointed to a sign for a shoe store. "Thanks!" Jo said cheerily. She cocked her head to signal that they should follow her and began to walk across the mall. They repeated the routine used at the previous store; Dwight explained the situation to the workers and then scurried back out.

"You boys want to have some kind of input on this one, or are you goin' to sit this out?"

"I don't know about Sam, but I'd like to be sure my little sister isn't going to trip over her own feet running from the stuff of nightmares." Dean said.

"Well, I don't really like the sound of being alone with Dwight, so I guess I'll come too." Jo nodded respectfully and led the others into the store. Ashlynn was glad that she would have Dean along with her. She had noticed in the few days that she had known her brothers that she always felt safer when Dean was close to her. He had already proved his commitment to her, even going as far as to challenge his own brother. Just by being in the presence of the Winchester brothers, one could feel the trust and loyalty between them. They would die for each other, and they had multiple times. One of the brothers confronting the other took a whole lot of courage.

Once again, Jo had to explain the restrictions to a cheery salesgirl working on commission. They restricted her recommendations to athletic shoes, but nothing with neon colors or splatter-paint patterns. Jo scrutinized the athletic abilities of each pair, and Sam and Dean analyzed their visibility and camouflage capabilities. Eventually, they settled for a simple pair of black Nikes. They took three pairs in Ashlynn's size, one to wear, a backup, and a double backup pair. The shopping bags were beginning to weigh them down, and Ashlynn was embarrassed to be carrying around the Victoria's Secret bag. She put it inside the bag from the shoe store and let Dean carry them.

Finally it was time to get Ashlynn a cell phone. Following Dwight's directions, they took the escalator down a floor and arrived at a cell phone kiosk. Ashlynn averted her eyes, not knowing anything about cell phones, and stared at her feet. Dean was fumbling with the shopping bags when he suddenly dropped them upon hearing the kiosk employee speak.

"Hello, Dean." The voice said calmly.

"Cas, what the hell are you doing here?!" Dean asked, bewildered.

"I have a job here." Castiel replied.

"Why do you have a job?" Dean asked firmly, grabbing the angel's trench coat by the collar. Castiel still wore the coat, surprisingly, over his dark green blended t-shirt and tan slacks.

"They have the internet here." Dean released him and put his hands on the counter, sighing heavily. He could never get Cas to give him a full answer unless he was very specific.

"Cas, lots of places have the internet. Why do you even need the internet?"

"I was looking for you." Dean began to laugh.

"Cas, we regularly make sure we're not on the internet." Sam said.

"I am aware," Castiel replied, now looking at Sam. "I was following the girl." His gaze travelled to Ashlynn. She had been looking at her feet until this point, but feeling a pair of eyes on her, she looked up and gasped.

"Your wings!" She exclaimed. Jo clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Not so loud, darlin'." Jo muttered.

"Wings?! He has wings?!" Dwight cried out. Jo removed her hand from Ashlynn's mouth and slapped Dwight square on the cheek.

"SHUT UP." She growled through her teeth.

"Oh my God, what is it doing in my mall?! I can never escape!" Jo slapped him again and Dwight tried to run. Considering his physical condition, it didn't work very well. The mall's president went crashing to the floor. Dean groaned and he and Sam went to work getting Dwight back to the vertical position.

"You can see my wings?" Castiel asked, cocking his head to the side and squinting at Ashlynn.

"Yeah, they're huge!" Ashlynn said. Sam and Dean had successfully up righted their sweaty companion and directed their attention to the drama in front of them.

"Ash, can you really see his wings?" Dean asked.

"I can see them! They're pretty cool."

"Dean, I really don't like how she's reacting to this." Sam warned, bringing up a topic Dean wanted to avoid forever.

"Let's talk about this later." Dean suggested firmly. "Cas, Ash needs a cellphone. Our usual." Castiel nodded and pulled out a plastic shoe bin full of cellphones.

"I've been preparing for this." He commented.

"Cas, have you been stealing from here?" Dean demanded.

"No. Customers surrender these to me."

Dean shook his head in disbelief. "How many do you have?"

"Thirty-seven."

"We don't need that many."

"You can stockpile them."

"Dean, let's just take them. It's easier." Sam urged. Dean sighed and grabbed the box full of cellphones.

"C'mon Cas, you're quitting your job." Dean said. Castiel lifted the kiosk counter and stepped out.

"Hello, Ashlynn. I have not properly introduced myself to you. I am Castiel, an angel of the Lord. I raised you from perdition. You've grown quite a bit since I last saw you." The last sentence was thrown out rather casually.

"Do you have any idea how Lucifer did that, or why?" Sam asked the angel.

"I have some idea, but it is not solid enough to be taken seriously."

"Okay, well we'd like to hear your theories later. What did you mean when you said you were following Ashlynn online?"

"The news is everywhere. Her mother slaughtered and the child kidnapped."

"I guess it's a good thing you grew up, kiddo," Dean said. "We'd have an amber alert on our asses if you were still a kid." Dwight whimpered behind him.

"Oh for Pete's sake," Jo said, expressing her frustration. "Dwight, get out of here. I don't need-" before she could finish her sentence, Dwight was waddling away, whimpering about wings and amber alerts. Jo sighed. "Let's get out of here."

"We haven't actually bought any clothes though," Ashlynn argued. "Just shoes and underwear."

"Darlin', you're a hunter. You can't be expected to wear the frilly crap they sell here. We're goin' to hit up some resale shops for the rest." Ashlynn was relieved. She hadn't wanted to wear anything she saw behind the glass displays anyway. "You boys are goin' to come with. But you'll feel more in your element than here."

"Cas, head to the roadhouse with these phones. We'll meet you back there later." Castiel nodded, took the box from Dean, and disappeared into thin air. "Damn it! I thought he knew we didn't want him to do that in public." Dean complained. Luckily, business was slow, so no one had noticed Castiel's literal disappearance.

"Forget it, let's go." Sam said. After finding the door which they had entered from, they all piled into the Impala with the shopping bags in the backseat, between the girls. Jo directed Dean to the shop she wanted to go to. It was a small brick building nestled between a bar and an insurance office.

"It's Monday, so they'll be havin' a pretty big sale. It's cheap anyways, but they'll be practically giving everything away." Once on the street with the Impala doors locked, Jo told Sam and Dean that they could wait in the bar if they wanted. "But as soon as I call you, I need you over here to pay." Dean nodded his agreement, and turned with Sam into the bar. "Sweetie, I think you may actually like this part." Jo led Ashlynn into the store. A small bell tinkled as soon as they pulled the door open.

"Will there be any more salesgirls?" Ashlynn asked nervously as they passed through the door. Jo laughed.

"No more salesgirls," she promised. "We pick everything and decide for ourselves what will work." Ashlynn was relieved. The forced enthusiasm made her uncomfortable around salesgirls. "What do you want to look for first?" Jo asked. There were no other customers. In fact, the only other living soul was the elderly clerk falling asleep behind the payment counter. Ashlynn swept her gaze across the store. It looked more like a hoarder's storeroom than a real shop. Aisles were formed by bookshelves converted into the clothes racks by replacing the shelves with wooden hanger rods. Along the walls were blue plastic bins filled with shoes, purses, scarves, books, and all types of other odds and ends.

"I think we should start with jeans." Ashlynn decided. Jo nodded and led her into the correct aisle. She looked Ashlynn up and down and declared that Ashlynn was a size one. The two girls began to pull pairs of jeans off the racks labeled in her size. Jo took the pile of denim and threw it onto an ottoman outside the fitting room. Next, Ashlynn wanted to find some good cotton t-shirts.

"Nothing obnoxious, just like… band t-shirts and ones without writing or anything."

"You're already developing a sense of style!" Jo praised. "That's good. No extended family of mine is goin' to be fightin' monsters in a sequined shirt." Ashlynn smiled. She had decided that she really liked Jo. She was actually starting to like this whole shopping ordeal as long as she got to joke around with her extended family sister.


End file.
